Five out of 7 BJP candidates in Delhi facing criminal charges

Five out of seven BJP candidates who are in fray in the Lok Sabha elections from the national capital have criminal cases against them with four of them even facing serious charges like kidnapping, criminal intimidation and extortion, a report said on Wednesday.

According to the report of Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Delhi Election Watch (DEW) after analysing the self-sworn affidavits of all the 150 candidates who are in fray for the seven Lok Sabha seats in the city, 23 candidates have criminal cases against them while 13 of them are facing serious criminal cases.

Out of this, Maheish Girri of BJP from East Delhi constituency has declared the highest count of serious IPC charges i.e. four. He is followed by Sunil Chhikara an Independent candidate from North West Delhi Constituency and Mahabal Mishra of Congress from West Delhi Constituency, with three IPC cases each.

"Five (71%) of the seven candidates fielded by BJP, two (29%) candidates each from Congress and BSP out of the seven candidates have criminal charges cases against them," the report said.

While two (67%) out of three candidates fielded by Shiv Sena (SHS), one (14%) out of the seven candidates of AAP, one candidate each from both Agar Jan Party and Rashtriya Ekta Party and nine (16%) out of 58 Independent candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits, the analysis revealed.

13 (9%) of which have declared serious criminal cases including those related to kidnapping, criminal intimidation, extortion etc," the report said.

Four out of seven candidates of BJP are facing serious criminal cases. Two out of seven candidates of BSP, two out of three candidates of SHS, one out of seven candidates of Congress and four out of 58 Independent candidates have declared serious criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

When it comes to crime against women, Mohammad Shakeel Saifi of BSP from East Delhi constituency has declared a case related to assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty (IPC Section-354) and word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman (IPC Section-509).

Other than this, two candidates have declared cases related to kidnapping.

The report further states that two constituencies - North East and West Delhi - have at least three candidates from political parties with declared criminal cases.